Apple Introduces New Aluminum Remote, Improves Performance on AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule

[termite]

Snow Leopard Hates Remotes

What's the point of a new remote when Snow Leopard has broken all remote functionality outside of iTunes, Quicktime, and Front Row?

Every program that worked fine with the remote on Leopard (MythTV, Hulu Desktop, Apple Logic, etc..) no longer works right with the remote in Snow Leopard.

 

[analog guy]

I bought my 1TB TC just at 45 days ago from BB so I'm within my return window thanks to my silver rewards status.

I love the idea of having wireless backups for my MBP but the reality is that the implementation is painfully slow and when it is backing up, everything else whether on the MBP, the MP or the iPhone all run slow. To top it off, for some reason, even incremental backups from hour to hour are ungodly large...a problem I've been troubleshooting with Apple Tech support almost since day 1. I called my local BB and they confirmed there's no TCs anywhere in the entire district nor the distribution facility. So reportedly in the next 1-2 weeks they should have stock of all the new Apple products that rolled out today.

Anything that brings speed improvements for TC backups is well worth the cost in my book!

I'm miffed having upgraded only 2 months ago that they have made 50% speed changes for a product that was heavily revised (i.e dual band/guest network) only in March this year.

perhaps i'm reading it wrong, but it appears to me that while apple has changed the antenna(e?) and perhaps made a few other changes, the speed of the backups has not changed.

the statement apple includes on their site was published for the prior versions and has more to do with snow leopard than the time capsule hardware. (note: they do not quote a speed improvement with leopard, which is the give-away. apple started making these claims when they were preparing for the 10.6 launch.)

Even better, new technologies in Time Capsule and refinements to Time Machine make backing up to Time Capsule using Snow Leopard up to 60 percent faster than before.

of course, if bandwidth was your bottleneck and the new TCs improve bandwidth, then you'll see an improvement.

i purchased a 2TB TC in august and note than bandwidth is not the constraint for me on incremental backups.

there may be other reasons to complain for those who just purchased TCs, but that does not appear to me to be one of them.

please correct me if i am wrong.

 

[wackymacky]

I hpe it does a better job at controling my iPhone on the universal remote thant the old one.

 

[Groves]

It looks anorexic lol! I think it is nice, but a little more width than height would look better, and I'm not sure why they added they play/pause button instead of keeping it in the middle...

I like this move.

There are times when you need to select something, but aren't trying to pause the thing that's already playing. It opens up functionality for the (hopefully near) future for the remote to be a tad more able to multitask.

 

[Palliser]

Yeah I just bought an airport extreme 15 days ago... bah, thats how technology goes I suppose! But I'm happy with what I have. Still works well...

 

[sine-nomine]

So Apple has told one poster that the remote has a click wheel - can anyone else confirm? Nothing in the store says one way or another, and I'm having some memories of the release of the original aluminum MacBooks when Apple reps were telling people that even the base model had the backlit keyboard. I'm not sure I trust the CSRs to have the facts.

 

[williedigital]

So this pretty much ensures an AppleTV Update

They wouldn't come out with a new remote and keep selling an AppleTv with the old remote. And they wouldn't add one to the box. New AppleTV in two weeks or less.

 

[MorphingDragon]

The key words I was looking for was price drop.

The new remote looks fugly.

 

[wverveer]

60% increase on time machine? wow. so is the previous time machine pathetically slow? I might buy one now.

How can i see, that the TC is the new version...the one with the 60% increase?

When i order now.. i have the possibility to get the older one...decrease with 60%, and ik want to be certain of the newest one..

sorry about my english,,greetings from holland

 

[CaryMacGuy]

The New apple remote: a scrapped design idea for the 3rd generation Shuffle
Actually it is pretty cool looking

 

[analog guy]

How can i see, that the TC is the new version...the one with the 60% increase?

When i order now.. i have the possibility to get the older one...decrease with 60%, and ik want to be certain of the newest one..

sorry about my english,,greetings from holland

see my earlier post, a few posts up from yours.

the time machine performance improvement is attributable to SNOW LEOPARD -- not the time capsule.

the "last generation" time capsule (released over the summer) has the same capacity but an antenna configuration that gives slightly slower speeds/less range. network speed is unlikely to limit your performance on incremental backups, so if all the above is true you may wish to get the cheaper (older) version.

note: there may be other updates we don't know about (e.g., power supply changes) that make this version the one to get.

 

[Beric]

Can you use it with DVD Player? I hate Front Row.

 

[nkawtg72]

How can i see, that the TC is the new version...the one with the 60% increase?

When i order now.. i have the possibility to get the older one...decrease with 60%, and ik want to be certain of the newest one..

sorry about my english,,greetings from holland

don't think you have to worry about that. at least in the US, if you order a product with XX description, then that's what they have to give you. if you order from Apple Store online and you selected the product you want and purchased it, that's what you'll get. apple will not ship old ones in place of new ones for new sales. however, it may be possible to find an old one on the store that you can choose to buy, but apple will have indicated that in the description of the product.

i recommend you make certain to save your online receipt (with product description and model#) just to cover yourself in the event you don't get what you paid for.

 

[mcmlxix]

Apple TV

The new remote might bode well for ATV, but the disappearance of Front Row from apple.com is disturbing.

I was hoping (or speculating) that the ATV/Mini distinction would be eliminated during this refresh something like this:

A. Select your machine (choice of with or without optical drive, and choice of HD size) which has HDMI in addition to the current ports on the Mini

B.Add your OS (ATV OS, Snow Leopard, or Snow Leopard Server)

C.Click purchase

I guess not.

I’ve observed that the last several ATV software updates have come in Februarys and Junes. Does this mean we’ll have to wait until Feb for the next update?

I’ve also heard (or maybe imagined) that Apple is working out an ad based revenue sharing plan with Hulu to legitimately include it in the ATV menu. This would be sweet, as would being able to mount external hard drives (either via WFi or USB) through the ATV menu.

I’d rather not have to deal with the xbmc/boxee hack. I find the experience rather non Apple. Go figure, and Hulu streams like a rapid slide show anyway, unlike on my iBook, which is smooth.

 

[alexph]

In the UK it seems that the new AE has a model number of MC340B/A. The one delivered to me today was a MB763B/A, so it goes back tomorrow hopefully

Alex
\

 

[basura!]

Are they going to provide some sort of control panel this time? It'd be nice not to have to rely on third-party software in order to make this thing useful...

 

[FromageTheDog]

AEBS drops Time Machine support?

Anyone else notice that the AEBS page says absolutely nothing about supporting Time Machine...? I remember that for the first gen AEBS, Time Machine support was "unofficial," but I thought the later revisions officially supported it...

 

[celticpride678]

Seems like a lot of empty space on the remote. But still, it might make sense. Amazing, new design was needed though. Apple came through. I might think about purchasing this now

 

[Sol]

I wonder why they moved the play/pause button. It doesn't seem ergonomic to me. I use my Apple TV a lot and my thumb just has to naturally return to a neutral position when selecting a menu item. Now I'm going to be picking it up and moving it off the arrows multiple times for any menu interaction.

Good question. If this was compatible with Apple TV I would say it used this button layout to make playing games possible. This way users would have one thumb on the scroll-wheel and the other on the two buttons. Of course Mac games could also be made compatible with such a control scheme, if enough people buy these things.

 

[dmelgar]

QoS (quality of service) on Airport Extreme?

I'm in the market for a new router supporting QoS (quality of service) to make sure VOIP works even when the internet connection is busy.

I just bought a D-Link DIR-825 I can still return. Its working great with QoS for my VOIP phone, but my iPhone keeps dropping the WiFi connection complaining about "incorrect wifi password".

I'd rather have an Airport Extreme. I assume it would work better with my 2 macs and iPhone, but I need QoS.

 

[jettredmont]

I wonder what's coming down the pipe.

Apple wouldn't spend time and resources updating their remote control, unless there's something cool coming down that will take advantage of the new functionality or design. An updated Apple TV, perhaps?

What new functionality? Aside from the (not advertised, so I'm somewhat reticent to believe it) report of the black circle acting like a scroll wheel, there's no new functionality to be had from this remote. Two buttons were moved, the finish changed to aluminum from white plastic, and the shape slightly changed. Seems the definition of a cosmetic update.

I strongly doubt this portends anything good for ATV, as much as I'd love it to. I'd like to ship our old ATV upstairs and replace the living room ATV with a new model ... Apple just has to produce something with not-three-year-old technology. Sigh.

IMHO, I'd LOVE a much better remote for the ATV. I know Apple hates multi-button remotes, and I understand that. But the finger gymnastics I need to do to find an artist in my music collection (the inertial scrolling makes for a neat demo, but is WAY too imprecise for finding the right item in a list!) would benefit greatly from a better remote control interface. Even just having a dedicated remote control IR command for on and off (so I can program my home theater remote) would be a nice addition, I don't care if they implement it in the remote control or not. But, ideally, they'd come up with an iPod Touch-lite (read, cheaper than an iPod touch so that I can justify letting 3-year-old fingers within greasing range of it) remote control, and/or enable any Mac to run the iPod Touch's Remote Control app (because my laptop is always at the ready when I'm watching TV or listening to music anyway).

 

[jettredmont]

Good question. If this was compatible with Apple TV I would say it used this button layout to make playing games possible. This way users would have one thumb on the scroll-wheel and the other on the two buttons. Of course Mac games could also be made compatible with such a control scheme, if enough people buy these things.

You realize that the IR emitter has to be pointing pretty much directly at the computer/ ATV for the button presses to register, right? Holding it "sideways" like a Wii remote won't work. And, generally speaking, twitchy gaming action and IR remotes don't mix, even if you are holding it so that the emitter generally faces the receiver.

 

[skeep5]

looks like an upside down :0

 

[thenorthman]

Hmm, the remote is no longer included in the iMac purchase (not that I mind—I found it useless).

Can someone tell me what the story is with these 18 month old TCs? I purchased a few months ago (just before the last upgrade). Am I safe putting data on it?

I purchased a 1TB version on the pre-order when they were first announced. Mine is still up and running and have had no problems with it after the initial issue of the first back up that was going on when it first came out.

So that is my experience....

Sean

 

[GQB]

I'm glad they made the remote optional, since I use either my Harmony remote or any of a variety of iPhone remote apps for both my Mac and AppleTV, to much better effect than the actual remote.
Actually, I've been using Air Mouse as my trackpad while my iPhone charges, but I'm getting a Magic Mouse as soon as they're available.